Tuesday, 23 August 2011

So we are all lined up waiting our turn for a go on the bumperboats. These are round boats, with inflatable rings around them. They seat two, and you use a joystick style controller with a button on the top to direct the electric motor and point the boat in the direction you want to go.

We are at Wheelgate Adventure Park, just north of Nottingham, in the Midlands. It's a great park for young children, with plenty of rides for them. We've been to the park a couple of times before, but had never yet got around to a go on the boats.

Well today was the day. The sun was shining and the girls were being particularly well behaved making for a nice family day out. We reached the start of the queue and the man in charge of the ride handed us two lifejackets for the girls. I'd ride with Cheeky Monkey no.1, my husband with other youngest of our two cheeky monkeys, now approaching 3 years old. My husband had been holding CM No.2 in his arms, but placed her back down on the ground so he could put her life jacket on.

Jackets were put on. CM No.2 looked down at hers, a thick padded jacket which came out from her chest a good few inches. She patted her chest with a satisfied expression.

It was fairly quiet in this queue. I should point that out now.

CM No. 2 looked up at daddy, still patting her chest in a satisfied manner.

Saturday, 20 August 2011

I rarely buy much at Boots other than the annual pot of Clarins moisturiser and top-up mascaras, I’ve mentioned before how much of a non-girly girl I really am, and of course it’s the only place I seem to be able to get hold of the photo albums I like, as I’m of the pre-photobook generation. But recently I have made a great Boots purchase.

I live in a pretty small town, and Boots was going to be one of only a handful of shops I was going to be able to buy some new swimwear for the summer, but of course I was making this shopping expedition in the first week of August.

With the benefit of hindsight I can see how those fashion savvy readers will be thinking ‘What the!’ since it transpires that August is actually the last time you can expect to buy swimwear in the shops. Apparently we are supposed to make these purchases three months in advance in March. Shops in August stock knitwear, wellington boots and other general autumn fair. I understand that this would be fine for those equally blessed fashion followers who happen to have a static body shape. But I’m shopping for me, someone who has two infant children, and has varied success at actually getting any exercise.

My body size moves from a size 10 to a size 14 depending on what shop I’m in within the same day, further aggravated by the swinging body size resulting from events like Christmas and year-end accounts time (ask any accountants you know about that and watch them reach for the chocolate).

So the shopping trip was pretty unsuccessful when it came to buying any swimwear. I wanted a full swimsuit as well, not a bikini. Ha! Boots had roughly four different designs still in stock, all not to my taste and another couple of designs which I liked, but turned out to be maternity ones.

So I browsed the rest of their dwindling summer fair and spotted a lovely navy, white and red beach bag.

The design attracted me initially, but when I investigated further I discovered that it had a feature that I personally hadn’t seen before. The bag had an inner drawstring lining, meaning you could throw all sorts of stuff in it, pull the string, let the inner bag fall inside the outer bag, and have a beach bag that wasn’t going to spill all your suncream, sunglasses, kids swimming nappies, wipes, mobile etc all over the sand.

I’ve checked, but it doesn’t look like you can buy Boot’s summer stuff online (oddly), so you’ll just have to look out for similar designs like this one and be smug when you’re all ready for summer!

Tried and tested. I love it. Photos finally added... If anyone knows where one can buy these on line this year please post the link in a comment.. Thanks!

#outofthemouthsofbabes

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